Sister In Arms
by 101Dancey
Summary: Merle was never at Woodbury, the group never found Merle but now they do, with one of the most adapted girls for the zombie apocalypse, Alexandria is one of the only people who Merle listens to, so when she's thrown into the group, will Daryl keep her at arms length or will she be too much for him to handle? (Terrible summary -.-) (Daryl/OC)
1. Chapter 1

Heading towards the small convenience store that we had passed a few days before. Holding a hatchet drawn in each hand I walked quietly keeping my eyes open and listening intently. The woods were silent as always, animals hiding from not only humans but the walking corpses that would quite happily snack on little Bambi if they got the chance.

I'd left the lump of a man in the cabin we'd holed up in last night, jamming the door shut on my way out. He'd stayed up on watch over night while I slept so I'd decided to take my ass out and go find some food. The supermarket looked untouched, however when I did arrive the 2 cars and the black motorcycle that were parked up outside were clearly a new arrival. Letting out an annoyed sigh I saw the man stood outside clearly on watch, he was holding a shotgun and I rolled my eyes, bloody typical.

The scream's and shouts that came from inside instantly drew my attention and I stayed close to the tree's watching silently as the man with the shotgun ran inside and a more shouts followed, that's when I noticed the few walkers on the roof ambling about and swore under my breath. The sound of creaking and groaning made my feet move, those people inside were about to be fucking crushed. Once inside I saw the man trapped under the fallen shelf and the people trying to get him out, there was a back to my pulling on the shelf but having no luck in lifting it. Tucking the hatchet's into their holders on my hips I ran over and grabbed hold of the shelf beside him pulling it up. The shelf lifted and the man underneath was pulled out, the man beside me glanced at my hands before his eyes travelled up to my face, the look of shock was instantly covered up by a glare and I released the shelf before seeing the half body of a walker dragging itself across the floor and stomping down hard on its skull. My heavy black combat boots quickly crushed the skull and ended the man's undead days.

As the roof gave another groan I quickly began to drag the man who had been stuck under the shelf and dragged him to his feet pushing him out the door and following. The man from the shelf and the guy who had pulled the trapped man out followed behind us as the roof collapsed. Once outside everyone began to try and catch their breath and I glanced around at the group of people. There were 4 dark skinned people and 3 light skinned men, now that they had all regained their breath they began to stand up straight and I glanced around at the faces, the 5 men and 2 women looked to be in good health, one was carrying a katana, dreadlocks in her long hair, another had her frizzy hair pulled back into a bobble. An Asian men covered in riot gear and carrying a gun, one large burly man with facial hair, a short young looking man, a nervous looking dark skinned man and to finish off the man who had been lifting the shelf, shaggy hair with a leather vest jacket.

"Okay, thanks for helping an all, but who the hell are you?" the Asian gave me a pointed look, he looked me over and I finally realised I must look a mess to these people, my dark auburn hair was slipping out of the messy bun I'd managed to tie it up into earlier, my blue tank top was covered in dark patches of walker blood and lighter patches of my own blood, my black cargo pants had rips at the knees and were just as stained as my shirt, The dried blood that covered my left arm was probably a concern for them, a piece of shredded cloth tied tightly around my left bicep and the dark tattoo splashed with colour running from under my shirt all the way down my right arm. What skin that was on show was muddy and dirty, not to mention the dried blood on my face from the cut above my left eye.

Giving a nervous laugh I looked at the Asian. "Guess there was kinda no time for introductions earlier, names Alexandria, although most people call me Alex or Lexi." I brushed the loose hair off my face and realise there was more hanging down than I first thought and quickly pulled at the tie in my hair, trying to pull it all back into some form of order.

"I'm Glenn, this is Sasha, Zac, Tyreese, Bob, Michonne and Daryl." He motioned to each person as he said there name, I gave a nod and glanced around at their cars.

"Guessing from the fact you were scouting this place out and look quite heavily armed I'm guessing you have some form of group and a camp waiting?" Sitting down on the closest object I could I glanced between the small group, they were mismatched and clearly thrown together.

"We have a group." I glanced up at the gruff voice that addressed me, the man with the shaggy dark hair and leather vest, Daryl, I think gave me a look over, his accent was clearly that of a redneck and I frowned, getting that strange feeling that I was forgetting something.

"You got a group or?" Glenn addressed me again and I shrugged my shoulders.

"No, just me and my friend, he's back at a cabin we stayed at last night, just down the road" Standing back up I patted my two hatchets to make sure they were there.

"We can offer the two of you a place at the group if you wish, however we will have to ask you three questions." Taking another long look at Glenn I thought about it for a second before nodding my head.

"Alright, shoot with the questions."

"How many walkers have you killed?"

Frowning I looked down at the ground and thought hard about it. "Between my friend and myself? Probably about two hundred or so."

The quiet looks the group shared nearly made me proud, they were impressed and I felt good about that.

"How many people have you killed?"

Giving him a long cold look I ignored the pain in my chest before answering. "I've killed 3, my friend has killed 2."

"Why?"

"Two of mine were my parents who had turned, I came home to get them and take them away with me and instead they tried to eat me, the other was a woman we found hiding in a tree in the woods, she was screaming bloody murder and her arm was chewed to the bone, she begged me to end the pain. So I did."

"And your friends kills?"

"One was a man trying to pin me down and rape me, the other was a mercy killing of our friend, he got bit, then asked my friend to put a bullet in his brain so he did it."

The group stayed silent before they all looked at each other silently discussing their options before they seemed to agree.

"Daryl and Michonne will go with you to get your friend while we wait here, then we can head back to our group."

I gave him a nod and turned to face Daryl and Michonne, motioning into the woods. "there's a shortcut through here, cuts the journey in half." Taking off walking I heard the footsteps behind me and just kept walking, I kind of knew the man wasn't going to like this, but I was tired of running, and the safety of numbers seemed safer right now, I was injured and he was getting tired of not sleeping enough.

"What happened to your arm?" I glanced over my shoulder at Michonne, this was the first time she had spoken since we met and I noted that she was quiet and in my opinion she was reserved form everyone.

"Some stupid asshole with an eye patch tried to shoot us down, got me twice in the arm and grazed my head, that's when we lost our friend. Walkers were drawn to the noise and sneaked up on us, bit his shoulder before I killed the bastards and we dragged my friend off." Trying hard to ignore the pain in my chest I bit down on the inside of my cheek, I hated to be shown as weak to people, weakness got you killed.

It wasn't long before we reached the small house and I asked them to wait outside knowing what the man could be like, they complied and I shouldered the door open heading inside, he was awake now and sat sharpening his knife as I walked closer.

"Found a group, we're going back with them, they seem good." The man glanced up at me and I raised my eyebrows daring him to argue with me, the dark circles under his eyes were quite the indication to how much we really needed this.

"We ain't stayin' wit' them fer long." He drawled at me and I rolled my eeys grabbing my pack from the floor and stuffing my small blanket inside, the bag wasn't filled with much, a blanket and a couple of knives some ammo for the 2 guns strapped to my thighs and 4 more hatchets that I had found. He gathered up his belongings before I began to head outside, the two glanced up as I walked out.

The dead silence that filled the air when my friend stepped out concerned me, did they know him? Was this going to come down to a fight. The redneck was staring at the other man from the group and that's when the similarities clicked, my eyes went to the crossbow in the smaller man's hand and I stared, no fucking way had we found him.

"Merle?" The mans voice was laced with emotion and I just stared, looking at the tall redneck with the metal contraption on his right arm where his hand had once been, the stubble and short hair that was growing on his face and head, the scruffy worn clothes. His brother stood before him now, since the Atlanta incident that had reunited me and my friend.

"Well fuckin' hell, guess I take back wha' I said Lexi, looks like we migh' be stayin' awhile." Shaking my head I let out a small chuckle as the younger brother glanced over at me.

"Ya could 'ave told us his name?" His piercing blue eyes caught mind and I saw him instantly flinch away, there were few people even before the apocalypse that could match my steel blue eyes, they were cold and I knew it.

"Now now bruther, don' go blamin' Lexi, gals got more balls than me and ya combined." He let out a short laugh and I turned to look at him, flipping him off.

Swinging my pack onto my back I glanced at the group of three. "We leaving or standing around here chatting?" Putting my hand in my cargo pants I pulled out the packet of cigarettes and handed one to Merle, pausing I offered one to Michonne and Daryl, the latter accepted one but Michonne just shook her head. Shrugging I put them away and lit the cigarette before handing the lighter to Merle, Daryl pulled one form his own pocket and lit up as we began walking. I held the stick between my fingers and rolled my neck the cracking sound made Merle laugh and I smirked at him, Daryl and Michonne were walking behind us while me and Merle walked in front, I took a long drag, blowing the smoke out into the air.

"How'd you two meet anyway?" I glanced over my shoulder at Daryl tehn glanced up at Merle my face registering shock, he glanced down at me and frowned.

"You never mentioned me? I'm insulted Merle." Letting out a short laugh he nudged me then took a drag and I glanced back at Daryl again. "I was his superior in the military, bossed him around and taught him how to behave, soon forgot it when he went home though clearly."

"How's you two meet up then?"

"Just after he cut his hand off, found him crashed in that fucking van on the side of the road, pulled him out and dragged him into a house nearby, we, me and Caleb looked after him and found a way to make him his new weapon, when he was fit to travel we started to try track you down, found the burnt out CDC then got chased off by a couple of herds, found ourselves getting shot at by this whackadoo with a couple of cronies."

Taking the final drag form the cigarette I stubbed it out on a tree and threw the stub into the dirt, glancing around for walkers.

"Ya still wit' Officer Friendly? Think me and the good ol' cop should have a little reunion." Merle had finished his cigarette during my story and was now following my lead glancing around.

"We went back fer ya in Atlanta, Merle. Me, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog." Daryl sounded fed up, he knew Merle well and knew what he was like, although he had to deal with him for longer than I had.

"Yea, yea."

We reached the supermarket and Glenn looked up and froze, his eyes going to Merle and I glanced up at the man who was smirking, nudging him in the side he glanced down at me and I pointed at him.

"You better play nice Merle, I'm tired of being out here so you're going to be nice to these people and keep the past where it belongs." We walked closer to the cars and Glenn and the others shot Merle a few worried glances.

"We're taking you back in separate cars, Merle you're going with me and Michonne. Alexandria-"

"Don't call me by my full name." I caught Glenn's eyes and felt him squirm under my gaze before looking away.

"Okay, you're going with Sasha, Tyreese and Bob. We will have to blindfold you until we know we can trust you." I glanced over at the group of three and sighed.

"Guess you want the weapons handed over?" Glen gave me a slow nod and I let out a grumble before slipping off my pack and opening it, Taking my 2 hatchets from their holsters and slipping them into the bag I removed the 2 guns strapped to my thighs as well as the knife hidden in my boot and turned to Merle who handed me his 2 guns and I watched as he removed the blade from his metal contraption before we shoved everything into the bag and I fastened it shut handing it to Glenn.

The next thing I was given was a pillow case and I grumbled as I got into the car before securing the thing over my head.


	2. Chapter 2

When the car finally came to a stop I had nearly fallen asleep, the pillowcase was pulled from my head and I was ushered out the car by Sasha, she was pretty, her hair was pulled back she had an elegant appearance in my opinion, I'd learnt from the ride that Tyreese was her older brother, and Bob was an army medic, which instantly made my respect for him dial up a bit. Turns out that the group didn't run as a democracy but with a small council in charge, this council consisted of some of the founding and well respected members of the group. Sasha, Daryl and Glenn were part of it as well as two people I had yet to meet, Hershel and Carol.

Looking around now I was suddenly struck with where the group were settled. This was a former prison, it made sense to me all of a sudden. Somewhere like this where you could section it off and clear it out in those sections, a huge field to plant crops, which this group had done. Plenty of space, not to mention beds and security, I was impressed to say the least.

"C'mon, we'll take you inside and gather the council to discuss some things with you." Glancing up at Glenn I gave him a nod and began to follow, Merle quickly joined me and glanced around, he looks slightly anxious and I frowned.

"What's got you moving like you've got ants in your pants."

"I hate prisons, goin' ta feel like I'm back doin' time." He gave another nervous glance around and I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"You'll be fine Merle. You've got your brother back, you should be happy."

Merle glanced over his shoulder at his younger brother and the look on Merles face concerned me, his expression was hard to read and I frowned. "He's different, he's on'a them now."

Nudging him with my elbow we were led through the prison into a sort of office type room where we only waited a few moments before two more people joined us. I guessed that these two were Hershel and Carol. Carol was strangely pretty in a way, she wasn't exactly the youngest person I'd ever seen and she wasn't exactly the oldest, her hair was greying but it suited her, she was tall and skinny, her collar bones prominent through the thin material of her shirt. Hershel on the other hand was clearly quite a bit older than most of the other men, his wispy hair was white and the thick facial hair that ran across his jaw was white with hints of grey, his eyes immediately went to the dried blood on my face and left arm, his eyes darted to my right arm and the colourful tattoo but went back to the cut on my face.

"This is Carol and Hershel." I gave them both a slight smile and glanced at Merle who was looking at Carol, his expression was surprised.

"Well, its sure as hell nice ta see a familiar face."

Carol's expression changed slightly and she sat up a bit straighter. "It's nice to see you Merle, been awhile."

The grunted he gave in reply had me rolling my eyes at him, Merle leaned his muscled frame against the wall just beside the door and I kept my standing position beside him.

Hershel was the first to address us. "You've been asked the three questions I assume?" I nodded and motioned towards Glenn who gave Hershel a nod as well. "Most of the group know or know of Merle but not many of us know you dear."

"Names Alexandria but I'd prefer to be called Alexa, I was in the military with Merle years before all this happened. Found Merle just after Atlanta and me and my friend helped him."

Taking a slow look around the room at the people that were there, Daryl was shooting me and Merle strange looks and I could almost tell what he was thinking, what most people thought when they saw friends. That Merle and I had something going on.

"So what are you two then?" Though that's what Daryl had been thinking, Glenn was the one who asked, he seemed curios about me and Merle, then again, so did most of this group.

"Ain't nothin' between us, if tha's what yer implyin', Lexi's like a sista ta me" Giving me a slap on the arm, pain shot through my nerve system and I yanked my arm away, gritting my teeth before glared up at Merle, his eyes locked onto my arm again and I saw the fresh blood beginning to soak through the scrap of fabric. "Shit forgot Lexi."

"Asshole." Muttering under my breath I ignored the pain in my arm and I saw Hershel's worried expression, his eyes darting to the fresh blood on my arm.

"Are you bit?" I shook my head and removed the fabric from my arm, the two holes in my arm had just begun to heal over and the larger of the two was the one Merle had split open.

"Some wackadoo shot us a few days ago, hit me twice and grazed my head the third time, but my friend Caleb was bitten by a walker who was drawn by the gunshots. Merle, mercy killed him when he asked." I pressed the fabric to the wound again and glanced up at the sound of a chair moving.

"We'll let you stay, if you wish. However I don't want you in the same cell block as each other, as Alexa is injured we'll move her into cell block C were most of the medically trained are, Merle can be moved into B, there a few empty cells in there so he can have one to himself."

I glanced at Merle who was looking down at me almost asking for my opinion and I gave him a nod, letting him know we needed to comply to their wishes for this whole thing to work out.

"But first I think we need to get you both cleaned up, we have showers and once you've both taken one and you've got that arm clean, I can stitch up that wound for you."

Looking over at Hershel I gave him a sheepish smile. "A shower sounds pretty good right now." I glanced down at the cargo pants and blue tank top, that were both stained with blood and dirt, by now I'd also realised I probably smelled a bit funny.

An hour or so later I was showered and changed into some clothes that the group had spare, luckily for me they had a pair of navy blue cargo pants and a couple of tank tops that had been dubbed as 'mine' by Carol, the woman had grown on me, she was sweet. She had brought me the clothes when I realised I was stood in the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around me. The whole thing had been a bit much and I'd ended up nearly shouting at her when she appeared around the door. After washing the blood and dirt from my hair it had returned to its light brownish red auburn colour and I knew when it was dry it would become the wavy mess that it always was.

It felt like I was all but herded into cell block C by Carol, there were people ambling around; often they would mumble a greeting to Carol, some offering me a soft smile. It was strange for me, I'd spent the whole of the apocalypse with just Merle and Caleb and now I was with a huge group of people.

Hershel appeared from one of the cells and I noticed the limp in his step and frowned, he set a medical kit down on one of the tables and Carol ushered me to sit down, her eyes traveling to the tattoo on my right arm, I glanced down myself and remembered how much I loved the design. The swirling sunset colours began on the back of my hand and the swirled lines travelled up my forearm and bicep, over my shoulder and vanishing beneath my tank top. The colours gradually became darker as they travelled up my arm, like the sunset.

"Well at least I know you're not scared of needles." Hershel's voice was quiet and I gave him a half smirk, nodding to him before letting him take my left wounded arm in his hands, he quickly began to stitch up my wound. When I glanced up from Hershel's work I saw Daryl stalk into the room, his eyes went to us and he made his way up the steps without another glance. Carol's eyes followed him and she turned to me.

"We've sorted out where you can sleep, all the cells in there actually have one or two people in each one, but we have one upstairs that is technically Daryl's, but he refuses to sleep in the cells and sleeps out on the perch. His stuff is in the cell but he said you can sort of share it." I glanced up the steps and saw the top of Daryl's head, moving round clearly sorting something out. I gave Carol a smile and a nod in thanks.

Once Hershel finished stitching my wound he carefully wrapped a bandage around it and taped it down. I was led upstairs, by Carol, we passed Daryl laid out on his back with his hands tucked behind his head and he gave me an odd look, I was led to the cell and noticed that the group had taken to hanging sheets in front of the doors as to give people some privacy. As I stepped inside I took in my surroundings quickly, the metal bed frame in the right corner stretching across the wall, the pot in the corner was obviously a toilet and I shivered slightly, the thought of having to use that worried me. There was a wooden dresser in the room clearly something that was added after the apocalypse started. There was a handful of clothes piled up on the metal table that was fixed to the wall beside the bed. The mattress on the bed was only thin but my mind didn't care, a proper bed that I could sleep in reminded me of how worn out I had felt over the past few days.

"I found another pair of Cargo pants which should do for now, I'll have to ask someone to gather you some more clothes on the next run we have." Looking over my shoulder I gave Carol a soft nod.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, now I'm off to go try and fix up some of the clothes the men have ruined." Smiling I suddenly remembered the clothes I had arrived in.

"Carol, is there any chance you could try save my clothes I came in, the shirt is ruined and I know that but if you can save the pants, I'd be really grateful."

The sound of someone clearing their voice had me and Carol glancing to the door, leaning against the doorframe was Daryl, he looked nervous and Carol wandered out muttering some form of excuse. Once she was gone Daryl turned to me, he gave me a strange look, his expression was unreadable, his eyes were cold but I knew he would flinch away if I tried to make eye contact.

"He talked about you a lot you know." Sitting down on the bottom bunk of the bed I noted that the top mattress was missing, that would explain where Daryl's came from.

Daryl watched me carefully and I noticed the frown set deep into his expression, he was dressed in the same clothes as earlier, his jeans were ripped and a huge hole was developing on the left knee, a small one already there on the right, the short he wore was a dark one with sleeves, over the top I saw the angel wing jacket he had been wearing earlier. "Strangely enough he never mentioned ya."

"Not much to talk about." Shrugging I ran my finger over the small scar on the back of my left hand, it was a habit I had developed over the years, almost a way to relax myself. "Why do you resent him so much?"

Daryl was looking at the floor now, chewing his bottom lip. "Weren't ever there fer me, only when he wanted somethin', then he'd piss of again and give no shits."

Standing back up I walked closer to Daryl and he flinched almost cowering away. They were polar opposites; Merle was over confident, brash and loud mouthed. Daryl however was reserved, appeared to think his actions over more and soft spoken. "You know how he Is Daryl, he's probably never going to change."

"He ain't 'imself when he's around ya." I raised my eyebrows.

"Suppose it's just how we are. I was his commanding officer in the military, basically his boss. I sawed his ass more times than he cares to admit. He's trying to pay me back by helping me."

Daryl let out a sigh and slumped his shoulders slightly, Daryl had defiantly inherited the beter genes than Merle had. Being the same height was about all the two had in common, Daryl's frame wasn't as lanky as Merles. Merle was lithe with a rough exterior and a roughness that was set deep into his bones. Daryl however was tensed at all times, like a spring waiting to explode and I could see the muscles in his arm tensing and relaxing slightly as his mind worked over time, he was staring at me and I figured I couldn't real Daryl's expression as easily as I could read Merles.

"You shouldn't resent him you know, you might now think it but he's done so much to protect you."

When Daryl's eyes shot up to mine and stayed there he flinched again under my gaze but that's when I saw the burning look in his piercing eyes, coiling himself ready to release his anger on me. "Ya migh' be my bruther's little friend, bu' don' go tellin' me tha' ya know abou' me and him."

My mind was racing as I realised that the two althought appeared to me polar opposites, were two sides of the same coin. Their tempers matched very well and I raised my eyebrows, clearly that was just a Dixon thing.

Once Daryl had left I was left alone in to my thoughts until Carol pokes her head behind the sheet and gave me a soft smile. "Foods ready."

Without looking her way I got to my feet and began to follow her downstairs, just outside of the cell block was a huge room that we'd passed to get here the first time and I saw the tables that had been pulled out. Merle was sat beside me and I noticed his younger brother wasn't in plain view and frowned.

"Daryl's just been called up for watch." Merles voice was calm but I could see the worry etched onto his face. I thought back to what I was thinking earlier and I sat down beside him as I was offered a plate of some meat that had been cooked. One taste told me that it was deer, clearly they'd sent Daryl hunting in the woods and my mind raced at the thought of possibly heading out on a couple of supply runs, I'd always been an active person and If I stayed cramped up in one place for too long I became very jumpy and nervous, like a dog that needed to run.

Stabbing the long metal through the fence my arm let out a twinge in protest and I ignore it, the garden gloves the group made me wear were beginning to piss me off and I kind of wish I had my hatchets but I shook my head and sucked up stabbing a few more of the walking corpses in the skull with the metal pole.

To my left Glenn's girlfriend, Maggie, Beth's sister, was stabbing the things with a fire poker. I let out a sigh as we killed the last of the huge group and I gave Maggie a knowing look. She smiled at me and we headed back up to the main court yard everyone removing their gloves and dumping them in the bin provided, hanging the weapons on the fence. It had passed noon by now and the hot Georgia sun had caused a thin layer of sweat to coat my body. Unlike most I had no care for sweat, especially when there was a cool breeze like today.

When I'd woken up everyone was already bumbling round getting on with their daily jobs and I quickly managed to get Glenn's attention asking if there was anything that needed doing, he'd told me about the fence job that the group did to keep the walkers leaning on the fence down and when we were out there I had seen why they had to. The wooden poles that were holding the fence up in some places weren't going to hold and I frowned, the fence was thin, clearly needed something across the bottom to support it.

I was thinking about it when someone managed to sneak up on me and I quickly span around when a hand was placed on my shoulder, my right hand instinctively going for the hatchet at my hip that wasn't there and when I saw the man stood before me I let out a sigh and began trying to relax.

He was tall and thin, a similar height to Daryl and Merle, his black hair was growing out and was now tucked behind his ears, a stubble ran across his jaw like he'd shaved recently. The man held out his hand to me.

"Rick Grimes, never had the chance to meet you yesterday, Daryl filled me in on you last night." Taking his hand I shook it before returning my hands to my side.

"No one's mentioned you to me." Giving the man an apologetic look he gave me a slight smile.

"I'm sure Merle has mentioned me, probably called me Officer Friendly?"

Freezing up I stared at the man in front of me. So this was the guy that left Merle handcuffed to a piece of metal and forced him to cut off his own hand. I felt my jaw clench and my teeth protested as they were ground together.

"What happened up on that roof was just an accident."

Relaxing my jaw I nodded to Rick, I could be a pretty good actress when I wanted to be but I had a feeling Rick would test my skills in that department. I made an excuse and headed off back inside the cell block where Carol and a few other women were sat beginning to prepare some food for the group. As I headed over Carol turned her attention form the blonde in front of her to me and I nodded down to the food they were preparing.

"Need an extra pair of hands?"

Carol's soft smile told me that offering to help had earned me brownie points of a sort, washing my hands I began to help peeling and chopping vegetables, which Carol had told me Rick grew in the garden. Turns out that when they'd first arrived their group had been small, consisting of Rick, his teenage son Carl, his wife Lori, Hershel and his two daughters Maggie and Beth, Carol herself, a man very similar to Tyreese called T-Dog and Glenn. When they'd first began to clear out the prison they ran into a group of five prison inmate survivors and had ended up trying to clear out a block for them. One of the inmates had been bitten by a walker and was clubbed to death by his 'friend', another had tried to get Rick killed which had resulted in Rick killing him. One of the other three had run off and they had thought he died after he headed out into a walker infested compound. He'd survived though and broke the chins off the side courtyard which had contained walkers at the time, this led to the group being separated and forced into the tombs, the tunnels that connected parts of the prison and the boiler and generator room. The other two had become a part of the group, but when they'd had trouble they had both ended up being killed. My mind began racing and I hoped that nothing like that would happen to me.


	3. Chapter 3

A month had passed since the group had found Merle and me and I'd slowly gotten used to the idea of being with people. I'd gained enough trust to be allowed my hatchets back, my guns were given back and so were the extra hatchets in my pack. Merle had managed to keep a lid on his mouth so far but I was watching him like a hawk, I knew the second I relaxed, thinking he was finally going to behave, he would screw up and cause some shit.

True to Carol's word the next supply run had returned with bags and bags full of clothes, which had been distributed among the survivors here. Carol had brought me a bag half filled with an assortment of clothes, 3 pairs of dark coloured cargo's, 6 tank tops in a variety of colours, 2 large oversized shirts and a couple of pairs of shorts, underwear and socks were in the bag too after Carol had quietly asked me my size when they first brought the clothes in.

Right now it was late and everyone was in their cells, except for the council who were sat downstairs having a quiet meeting. They had been up for nearly 3 hours from what I could tell, being in an armed service gave you a good idea of time.

"The fences are starting to get bad again, the walkers are piling up and we can't fix them fast enough, the far side fence is beginning to bend at the top again and the wooden posts keep snapping." Glenn's voice sounded tired and defeated. I'd noticed the state of the fences a few days ago myself, the group had tried to fix them as best they could but the vast amount of walkers that were gathering and pushing against it had meant they couldn't get to it for long.

"We've tried everything I can think of, the people who've been on supply runs have found nothing that could help and I don't think that the fences will hold much longer." That was Sasha's voice, she didn't sound as tired as Glenn but I could hear the sound of worry laced into her tone.

Taking a deep breath I got to my feet, I'd been sat on the bed for nearly an hour listening to them discuss the different problems we were having. Being cautious of the scars on my legs I had left the pair of sweats that Carol had given me on the second week on and in just my socks I quietly walked out the cell and down the steps, Carol caught sight of me first and I silently approached the table.

"Alexa you're up late."

Giving a slight shrug I glanced at the 5 people sat at the table. "Couldn't sleep. Heard you guys talking about the fences."

Daryl was watching me carefully, his eyes going to the clothes I was wearing, ignoring him I looked at the group with a steady gaze.

"Look, I known I haven't been here long and some of you don't trust me yet, but I have an idea that might work on the fences."

Daryl had his eyes on my face now, avoiding my eyes, he let out a grunt and leaned forward in the chair resting his forearms on the table. "And why do you think your idea is better than anything we can come up with?"

Resting my eyes on him I gave him a cold glare and he flinched away before I looked at the group again. "Unless you've had a very reent hit to the head I'm sure you remember the fact I'm military, I spent the first 6 years there learning how to barricade myself into places. I can help if you'll let me, about 4 miles from here hidden in the woods is an industrial warehouse storage unit. It's filled to the top with stock from warehouses, ready to be delivered. I'm talking metal sheeting, blow torches, farming supplies, fencing, everything we could possibly need to fortify this place. I passed it a few days before you guys found me, there's a couple of walkers on the inside, all dressed in the work uniform, but the fence around it is 7ft iron bars, climbing it would be almost impossible."

The whole group was stunned into silence, glancing between one another, their expressions were almost disbelieving, the way their eyes glanced between each other let me know they were asking each other silent questions.

"We could send a couple of people to check it out tomorrow? Scout it out and see if it's possible?" Hershel was trying to be the voice of reason, not get everyone's hopes up but keep them up enough to go along.

"How 'bout I go? Could do wit' a trip outta 'ere." I glanced down at Daryl who was leaning back in the chair he had.

"What if we send Alexa with you? She knows where this place is, plus she's right, military? We should have had her on this as soon as she arrived." Sasha gave me a questioning look and I nodded to her.

"I'm fine going if Daryl's okay with me there?" The group turned their attention to Daryl and I nearly saw him squirm under the sudden pressure before giving a swift nod.

He ran a hand over his face and let out a deep sigh. "Merle ain' gonna like me takin' ya, he'll wanna go so we best leave real early, 'fore he's up."

Frowning I suddenly got what Daryl meant, Merle used to hate it when I went off alone and I'm sure he'd hate it if Daryl did too. "Just before dawn? When it starts to lighten up?"

Giving me a nod I returned it and when the group had nothing more to say I turned and made my way up the steps, heading into the cell. The coldness of the whole block had me shivering all of a sudden.

"How long ya known 'im?"

Turning around quickly I saw Daryl stood leaning in the doorway, he'd remove the leather vest by now and was in just a dark coloured shirt with the sleeves cut off. I hadn't heard him coming up the stairs and realized I must have been lost in my own thoughts.

"10 years nearly, I'd been in nearly 4 when Merle joined, had a bad attitude the second he saw me coming down the steps to meet them. Asked me for a little something, something, ignored him, once we were inside I made him drop and do 10 push-ups. Told him he'd do 10 for ever racist or sexist remark that left his lips."

Daryl scoffed a laugh and shook his head. "Bet he took real kind ta tha'. A woman tellin' 'im his place." When he let out a soft chuckle I smirked at him. "How many he actually do?"

Pausing I thought about it quickly in my head and tried to add up best I could. "Between 280 and 320 lost count after a while." Smiling at Daryl he chuckled again.

As I sat down on the bed and stared down at the floor, my mind began to start racing again, I was truly helping these people, trying to solidify my place here, prove to them that I belonged. The silence between us was deafening and I could only hear our breathing before he looked away. And mumbled some form of excuse before heading out the cell. Hearing shuffling and him settling down on the mattress, I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down, taking deep breaths.

"Alexa?"

Mumbling a reply I rolled over pressing my face into the pillow. Whoever it was could piss off.

"Alexa."

The person shook me and I grumbled lifting my head and looking at Daryl, he was fully dressed and wearing a slight scowl on his face. I quickly realised why he was taking me and suddenly I was wide awake.

"I'm up." I sat up in the bed and he nodded looking away from me and going quiet before leaving the cell.

Removing the covers and grabbing at the small pile I'd made beside my head for today I began to quickly get changed, pulling the oversized shirt off and replacing it with a dark red tank top, pulling off my shorts and replacing those with the patched up pair of cargo pants I had worn when I first arrived, shoving my feet into the combat boots I quickly fastened my holsters into place before filling them with my weapons, I had my 2 favourite hatchets but chose to strap a third to my back just in case.

As I quietly made my way downstairs Daryl was waiting by the cell block door and I joined him quickly before we headed outside, carefully shutting doors behind us. Once outside Daryl made his way over to the bike and I frowned.

"We can't ride it down to the gate, we'll have to push it, starting it will make too much noise and wake everyone." I glanced over at the cell block and when I glanced back at Daryl he gave me a curious look.

"Smarter 'han ya look." He folded up the kick stand he held the accelerator down and began pushing the bike, I unlocked the courtyard gate for him and opened it, locking it behind us. We walked in silence and I noticed his crossbow hung over his back, I'd seen him place a quiver of arrows into one of the bikes two bags before and wondered if they were still there.

Reaching the double main gates I saw Glenn and Maggie appear from one of the guard towers, they opened the gates for us and once we were inside the double gates Daryl carefully removed the crossbow from his back and handed it to me, I carefully arranged it over my hatchet and watched as he effortlessly swung a leg over the bike and carefully sat down, his feet planted on the floor either side. Using his shoulder to balance myself I carefully lifted my leg over the bike and sat down, Daryl had already folded down the spare pegs and he started the bike, the noise it made would have woken everyone up closer to the prison. Gripping onto Daryl's sides I felt him stiffen up underneath my hands and I talked to him over the loud engine.

"I'll tap you on the thigh which way to turn because I'm not shouting over this noise!" The only reply I got was a quick nod before he gave Glenn the same thing and I placed my feet on the pegs as the gate opened and we slowly drove forward and then picked up speed, heading off down the road.

I'd been on plenty of motorcycles before all this, my aunt's boyfriend had taught me how to ride one when I left moved in with her and I had loved it, finally having someone to teach me something.

A series of left and right turns later I saw the Iron fence and large building come into view. We parked right outside and I instantly saw 2 walkers stumble out from the left side of the building. I climbed off first once Daryl cut the loud engine off and took a look around as he climbed off. Carefully lifting his heavy crossbow from my back and handing it to him. Looking around, I pulled my right hatchet from the holster and he looked at the building.

"How we gon ge' in?"

I jerked my head to the right side of the building. "There's a gate round the back, held shut by two chains, I can probably break the locks with my hatchet." He looked in the direction and we began to walk that way. The two walkers followed us along the fence and I saw a third stuck under a pile of collapsed tires, arm swinging around slightly. Reaching the gate I looked at the two walkers pushing their arms through the fence and I glanced at Daryl before he nodded and removed his knife from its holster on his belt and stabbed both walkers in the head. Taking a good look behind us I turned and lifted the hatchet bringing it down hard onto the chain. The metal broke apart and I realised it wasn't as thick as I'd thought it was. Swinging again I broke the second chain and the gate swung open.

Once we were inside I saw Daryl produce a chain similar to the ones we use at the prison, two climbing carabiner's with a chain hooking them together. I headed straight over to the walker in the pile of tyres and took my hatchet to his head.

"We'll take a look inside, see what we can grab now and see if we can pile up some of the stuff we'll need." Heading to the door I heard Daryl's steps behind me and I tapped harshly on the metal door making a loud noise, leaning against the wall.

"Where ya from?" Looking up at Daryl I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Ya hometown?"

"Oh, I'm from London, moved over here at 16 to live with my aunt, then shipped myself off to the military at 17, was there for 8 years, got injured. Was dismissed from action, hospital for 6 months and that's when shit hit the fan." I ignored the twinge of pain in my chest and let out a sigh. "What about you?"

"No' much, followed Merle around mostly, drifted. Had a shitty payin' job as a mechanic for 'while before shit hit, grabbed merle and went off inta the woods." He was leaning against a set of rusted metal shelves. When there was no sound of walkers inside I used the hatchet to pry the door open and stepped inside. Compared to the humid Georgia heat it was cold inside, probably due to the lack of human presence, the skylights in the ceiling were letting in more than enough light to see. I instantly headed over to the metal sheeting that was stacked by the door, the pieces weren't big, about 2 foot wide by 3 foot long, each an inch or so thick.

"These are about perfect, and there's shit loads of them."

As they wandered around the storage unit I couldn't help but feel that something was off. However as we began to pile up a few things closer to the door the feeling had faded. Carrying an armful of metal tinder that could be used to weld the metal sheets to the fence, I heard a noise from a few feet away, quietly setting the tinder down I frowned and glanced around the unit, pulling both hatchets from their holsters. The sound was quiet, like something was trying to escape and as I slowly walked around the corner I saw the two walkers, both were tied up. Their legs tied together and tied to the bottom of one of the storage shelves, their hands were grasped in each other's and tied together and I noticed the harsh angry line on both of the dead's throats.

"Off'd 'emselves tagether." Daryl's harsh voice caught my attention and I saw him walk up beside me from the corner of my eye, he had his crossbow in front of him and I let out a harsh sigh.

"Loves a weakness. No one needs a weakness, especially not in a world like this. Walking to the pair they began to make more noise as I grew closer, their teeth snapping hungrily, The girl had a chunk of her cheek missing and I nearly laughed, her boyfriend must have woken before her and took a chunk out his lovers face. Without any more hesitation I lifted the hatchets and brought them down hard on the walker's skulls, bringing the two reanimated corpses to their final silence.

The rest of the time we spent there was silent, the only words were the occasional quiet conversation about how useful something would be. The small section of tools we'd found near the back had been a sort of miniature triumph for the pair of us as we brought them to the front. I however found a new heavier chain and padlock in a small staff room at the back, along with the key, the small supply of food that was in there was in the pile to leave with us now.

After locking up Daryl and me headed back to the motorcycle and I realised it was still early, the journey had only taken us 20 minutes and we had barely been here 2 hours if that. I did some basic maths in my head before turning to Daryl.

"If we get back as fast as we can and grab a couple of strong guys and those 3 pickups we could get all this back before dark, start working on fortifying first thing." Taking the crossbow from Daryl he nodded and slid onto the bike easily, I arranged the crossbow before copying his action and holding on.

As we drew to a standstill just inside the gate of the courtyard I saw him storming down the steps and coming towards us, his face a mask of pure rage and I soon saw Glenn following, his eyes already showing the signs of a bruise forming below it. Climbing from the bike I saw Daryl's whole body tense up and knew he' been this plenty of times before.

"I shoulda known the pair o' ya woulda gone ou' wit' out me!" Merles shouting reached me before me did and I saw the rage in his eyes, his left hand was clenched into a fist at his side. "Ya didn' even tell me ya's were goin'!"

"Merle. I don't need you to tell me what I can and can't do." Keeping my body language calm and collected I decided it was best to let him get it out of his system now rather than later.

"Ya always do tha' don'cha? Soon as I slept after watch ya wen' ou' go lookin' fer wha'ever I' was ya were lookin' fer!"

When he caught sight of Daryl getting off the bike he turned his anger onto his brother, going closer and giving him a shove. "And ya! Ya didn' think it was importan' to tell me?"

"Merle! Leave him out of this. It was my idea not his, you don't turn on him for what I do." Stepping closer I put myself between Daryl and Merle using Merle's weight against him I shoved him back and stepped away from Daryl closer to Merle. "Leave it. I went out because I knew you'd act like this if I told you I was going, you'd stop me going. Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

When he set his eye son me again I saw it, he had worried about me and Daryl, it was the same expression I'd seen on his face when Caleb was bit and I was shot. He had always been this way, acting so tough against us, trying to project this huge tough image but when he was hurt it showed through.

"You said it yourself Merle. More balls than the pair of you combined."

"Don' mean ya go' any common sense."

Staring at him I felt the corners of my mouth pulling into a smile, when Merle caught my eye the pair of us exploded into fits of laughter.

"Jesus chris' gal. gonna give me a fuckin' breakdown on'a these days."

When I saw Daryl glancing between us, clearly concerned for our mental health I couldn't stop laughing even more. It wasn't until Glenn reached us that we managed to sober up and I saw the same concern on Glenn's face when he reached us, instead of questioning me and Merle he turned to Daryl instead.

"What's it look like then?"

"Jus' as she said. Place is fuckin' loaded. Piled what we thought was useful by the door. Got time ta take a group wit' me ta load it all inta the trucks"

"How many people will you need?" He glanced between me and Daryl.

"Merle and Tyreese for sure, we'll still need more though." Brushing the loose hair out of my face I tucked it behind my ears and placed my hands on my hips.

"Me and Maggie." Casting a glance at Daryl he was looking at me, his eyes questioning me, like he was putting me in charge of this little mission, turning to Glenn I nodded and I saw Merle turn his back to me.

"Gonna go get my blade." Rolling my eyes at Merle back he marched off and when everyone began to walk off I grabbed Glenn's arm.

"Hey, that black eye? Did Merle hit you?"

"Yea, he tried to make me let him go out after you and when I didn't he span around and backhanded me with the metal contraption."

I had since let go of his arm and ran my hand over my face before sighing. "I'll talk to him. He can't be hitting people just because he's pissed."

Glenn just nodded to me before walking off to find Maggie, I saw Daryl step up beside me and he let out a sigh.

"How come tha dumb bastard don' listen ta a word I say, bu' he'll listen ta ya."

Catching the hidden tone in Daryl's voice I turned and looked at him, he was staring at the ground, his shaggy hair covering most of his face. Reaching out a put my arm on his bicep and he flinched under the contact, I'd noticed that a lot, flinching away. Hiding from everyone, keeping his distance between himself and people.

"That's because your family. I'm not, he still sees me as the girl that pushed him around the training field, gave him orders and didn't take his shit." Sitting myself down on the bench I stared at Daryl. "He still sees me as the girl that saved him."

When Daryl's head snapped up and his eyes locked onto me I nearly had a heart attack. "Wha'cha mean 'saved him'?"

"He never told you?" The looked he was giving me gave me the answer I needed and raised my eyes brows.

"When I took him out on his first real mission he got cocky. We were clearing out areas and he found an explosive dug into the ground. Save one of the guys in our team from stepping on the damn thing." Shaking my head I let the memory flood into my mind, that stupid skinny brat kid Michael had been ignore me all day. Told him to stick close and when he ventured off to the side his foot was about to hit the bomb when Merle had tackled him to the floor, seeing the freshly dug earth. "When we recovered from that Merle was bragging to Michael when he didn't look where he was going and nearly fell down this dug out pit filled with spikes. Grabbed his arm and stopped him. Since then he's always looked at me differently, never once said a sexist remark to me after that, hell when any of the guys said something to me he'd threaten to beat them up."

Daryl was watching me intently by now, his face had lost its scowl and he looked younger, more vulnerable. When his eyes met mine he quickly sorted himself out, the scowl returned and he stood up straighter and looked away.

"Merle aint said a nice word ta me in my life, then allova sudden there's this fuckin' apocalypse and he's handin' out complimen's to some fuckin' girl!"

Taking a deep breath I went to say something but changed my mind, I knew what this sort of mood was. He was alone, no matter how many people were around him, he was alone. When I got to my feet and slowly walked closer he glared at me and I sighed, when I went to speak he stormed away from me, muttering under his breath.


	4. Chapter 4

Dumping the tray full of blow torches into the back of the truck I watched as Daryl and Merle placed one of the metal sheets onto the back of the same truck. When Daryl saw me looking at them he marched away without saying a word and I rolled my eyes heading back inside to get more of the stuff we piled up. Having told Daryl of a plan to fix the metal sheet to the bottom of the fence he had said about the fences falling in and I pointed out the solid metal poles that could be dug into the earth and used to prop against the fence. Those were already loaded onto the largest of the 3 pickup trucks along with most of the tools we found. Once Maggie and me had wandered around some more and found a huge supply of gardening items along with some seeds and plant feeder, Maggie mentioning that Rick and Hershel were the main ones that looked after the garden in the prison.

There were only a few things left to pack and as I picked up a tray that was filled with packets of nails and screws I heard Tyreese shout from outside. Setting the tray back down I headed outside where a small herd of 6 walkers was heading from across the small road outside. Daryl was already lifting his crossbow when I heard Merle talk from behind me.

"Le' Lexi deal with 'em, res' of us can grab the res' of the stuff and ge' ready ta leave. If there's six now there'll be more of 'em soon." I saw Merle push Daryl's crossbow down and look at me.

"One person to deal with six walkers? That's suicide." Glenn shouted at Merle and I saw him grab at the crowbar he'd brought.

"No he's right, finish packing the stuff I'll deal with them." Pushing the gate open I pulled the hatchets from their holders and walked towards the first walker, swinging the hatchet sideways it sliced through the female's temple and she toppled over as I yanked the hatchet free, before copying the action with the male behind her. Pulling that out I threw it and hit the third walker and ducked under the fourths flailing arms and jammed the hatchet into the back of her skull before pulling it out, turning on my heel and hitting the fifth walker in the forehead. Pulling it free I kicked number six in the knee and heard the muffled crack as it went down landing face first and stamping down on the things head with a growl.

Staring down at the body I realised just how heavily I was breathing and turned away from the body grabbing up my hatchets and cleaning them on the clothing. Kicking one of the things in the side I watched as the 3 pickups drove closer and saw Merle open the cab door, climbing in I pulled the door shut and Daryl pulled the truck away from the storage unit.

Taking a deep breath I elbowed Merle in the side, when he looked down at me I pointed to the knife strapped to his metal arm and he glanced down at it.

"Watch where you're putting that thing, I don't need another scar."

Merle chuckled and removed the blade carefully setting it down on the dash of the truck. Daryl had stayed silent since I'd gotten into the cab and it was a tiny bit unnerving.

"We should have pretty much everything we need to fix the fences, although I would consider sending some more groups out in a few days to gather up more of that stuff, try bring as much of it as we can back to the prison?"

Daryl shifted in his seat and brought his left hand to his mouth, biting at the skin around his thumb, his right hand still on the wheel of the truck. "I'll talk ta the group when we're back."

As the truck came to a stop in the courtyard I opened the door and climbed out, Heading straight to the bed of the truck and opening the tailgate. More people appeared and I saw them begin to unload the other two trucks as I pulled a few of the plastic boxes down off the back and began setting them into piles according to what they contained.

Daryl and Merle appeared from the front of the truck and began to move the heavy metal sheets from the bed.

"Great, you guys are back." Turning around I saw the teenage boy approaching, his hair was growing long and messy and he wore a brown sheriff's hat. This was clearly Carl, Rick's son, they looked quite similar in some facts but other than that he could have been someone else's. "Judith's crying, won't drink her milk and she hasn't got any rashes but she won't stop."

Daryl put the sheet down and Followed Carl inside, turning round and looking at Merle questioningly he shrugged before following and I set the box down and followed, washing my hands in the rise water on the way past, wiping them on my pants.

Once inside I heard the loud screaming of the baby and Daryl's hushing. Walking inside I unfastened the gun and hatchet holsters setting them down on the table. The small baby was less than a year old according to the groups very basic time monitoring, watching Daryl try and deal with the baby I saw his face was settled his face had softened and he was too busy concentration on the child to notice everyone staring at him.

Twenty minutes later and the small child was still crying and exercising her more than healthy lungs. Hershel had since returned and had looked over the child, determining that she wasn't sick in any way he could see, she was simply unsettled. The group had taken it in turns to hold her, while everyone else sat around trying to come up with ideas.

Currently Daryl had gained the small child back and was quietly bobbing her and hushing, his face was scowling again and I'm sure he must have a headache by now. Letting out a loud sigh I stood up carefully and Merle who had been resting his head on the table shot up looking around and let out a grunt as he saw me.

"Hand her over." Pushing the loose pieces of hair off my face I Pulled my tank top down from where it had risen up my stomach.

"Ya ever held a baby 'fore?" Giving me hard look Daryl's eyes passed over me.

"Of course I have, got a lot of slutty aunts and friends." There was a couple of chuckles behind me as Daryl sighed and walked closer allowing me to get my arms under the baby.

Settling her into my arms Daryl removed his own and took a couple of steps back rubbing his face. Looking down at the small girl I noticed how she had the same eyes as Rick, her hair was dark like theirs and I wondered just what her mother had looked like.

"Hey sweetie, it's alright, shh, it's okay." Gently tapping my hand on the side of her thigh, she was staring at me and I found myself softening m expression, giving her a soft smile. "Aren't you just a little cutie?"

The sudden sound of silence had everyone who was looking at the floor or away lifting their head and staring. Lifting my head I stared at Daryl and saw the same expression on his face.

"I think we found our new baby sitter." Rick's voice filled the air and I saw him rub his hand over his hair and let out a relieved sigh.

Daryl sat down beside Merle and I took the seat the other side where I had been before, my back resting against the table.

"Prob'ly just go' sick of Daryleena's ugly mug." Merle's voice was quiet like he was tired and I heard Daryl let out a loud sigh beside him.

Kicking Merle in the leg I looked up at him as he looked at me and frowned.

"That's enough of that around little ears Merle, plus you should be nice to Daryl. Amount of times he's been there for you and all." Raising my eyebrows I let my gaze go cold and saw Merle's expression change to a glare before he stood up and left heading back to cell block B, muttering to himself.

"I don' need ya ta stand up fer me." Daryl's voice was quiet and I saw the rage in his face.

"Wasn't for you Daryl, I'm on watch tonight and I'm trying to avoid a headache." He glanced over at me and I looked at him dead in the face.

"Ya up in the guard tower?"

"Yep. Going to freeze my but off all night." Laughing slightly I stood up when Beth walked over to collect Judith form me for her night feed.

"You're on with me then, best get ready cause we're heading out soon."

The watch tower was cold. No I take that back it was fucking freezing. The tower had seen ruined when the prison had been attacked by a man that built a safe town close by that had a wall around it. Daryl was sat beside me, I was wrapped in a jacket loaned to me by Maggie, and wrapped in a blanket. Daryl beside me was wearing a jacket beneath his leather vest.

Letting out a sigh I saw Daryl glance at me, he was chewing on his hand again and I saw him fidgeting. He'd been on edge since we got out here and I was beginning to get nervous from how he was behaving. When he moved his hand away from his mouth to peer down at a couple of walkers I waited till he leaned back and lifted his hand to his mouth before grabbing it.

"For god's sake, please fucking stop!"

Daryl looked at me, his eyes confused. Pulling his hand out of my grasp he glared at me and set it down on his thigh. "Stop runnin' yer hand ova' tha' scar then." Pointing to my hand I glanced down at the Scar and sighed.

When we stayed silent for a few minutes Daryl sighed. "How'd ya ge' it?"

Looking over at him I let out a sigh. "Probably about time I told someone about it." Touching the long line that ran from the base of my thumb across the back of my hand and ended just before it hit the soft part of my wrist, the line was white and raised, having healed years ago. "When I was 10 my mum came home late one night, quite badly drunk and pissed off. She brought me downstairs and started shouting at me, threw a few plates and glasses at me then shoved me over. Landed on a piece of glass and it slashed my hand open. My dad came downstairs and took me to the hospital, lied to protect my mum and told me to keep my mouth shut." Staring down at the scar I ran my index finger over it before letting my hands drop to my lap.

"Ya ma? Most people have it with their dad, not their ma."

Casting him a sideways glance I looked back down at my hands. "Like Merle?" When his head shot round to look at me I met his eyes. "I've seen his back Daryl; don't need to ask to know who put them there."

When Daryl went quiet I bit my lip and leaned my head back against the wall. "He used to tell us that he was proud of you, they you weren't into the same shit he was. Didn't get yourself wasted drunk and pick fight when men twice your size, didn't get high and get arrested for one thing or another. Used to tell us all that you deserved better."

Reaching out I carefully took hold of Daryl's hand again and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go, his head lifted and he stared at me. "Ya see good in 'im don'cha?"

My only reply to Daryl was a soft nod. "There's a little good in even the worst of people Daryl."


	5. Chapter 5

Shoving the metal pole into the hole that had been dug for it I wedged it under the fence and began to fill the hole around the post in, pressing the cold soil down hard to keep it secure. We'd been out here most of the day fixing up the fences; the hot Georgia sun was causing sweat to coat everyone, mixed with the mud from the digging we all looked like monsters.

I'd been working with Tyreese, as he was lifting the heavy metal poles to me as I shoved them into place and lodged them in. There were three groups working on 3 different tasks. Merle had been separated from me and forced to help move the old wooden posts that the group had been using into a pile so that it could be used for something else if needed. Tyreese and I had the job of fitting in the poles as I was the only one that would be able to fit it in properly. Glenn, Daryl and Rick were fitting the metal sheets to the lower half of the fence. When Tyreese took off his shirt I gave him a long hard glare and groaned.

"What's the problem?" Standing up to his full height I looked up at him and shook my head.

"I'm jealous, I'm pretty sure if I took my shirt off no one would be working anymore." Letting out a laugh Tyreese nodded his head and used his t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his face before pointing to the knife I'd set down with the rest of my weapons.

"Cut it? Take the lower half off, not showing anything off then." Grabbing the next pole he dropped it into the hole I'd just dug.

Thinking about it I grabbed the pole from him and jammed it underneath the top of the fence and gave it a kick to make sure it was in a good place. Walking over I grabbed the knife and held the shirt away from me using the knife to cut across, the front, 3 inches below the bottom of my bra and cut it all the way around before removing the rest of the shirt and setting it down on the pile. My mind went to the small scars on my back, the tattoo running up the left side of my back and the two prominent scars on my right side across my ribs.

We continued on after that and managed to finish the section of the fence running from the main gate up to the main prison building. It had taken us another 3 hours but with one section of the fence secure I felt at least a bit safer.

Rick motioned for me and Tyreese to come over so I grabbed up the tools we used and shoved them into the fabric bag and Tyreese took it from me while I grabbed up my hatchets and guns slinging the holsters over my shoulder with them in.

We walked up along the fence and I admired the work everyone has done, the walkers that were pushing against the fence weren't moving it at all. I could see a group of people with gloves and weapons making their way over from the far side fence.

"Looks pretty sturdy, if we head over to the part at the end where the top of the fence is bent tomorrow, get that part fixed."

"Yea, if we secure the bent part first and head over to where the horses are, get that part done, the walkers tend to hang around there a bit more." Leaning my weight onto my left hip I saw Daryl's eyes snap down to my bare stomach. I'd always taken pride in my physical fitness and my pretty fast metabolism my whole life, it had left me with a smooth stomach and not allowed me to gain too much weight anywhere on my body. A red rose covered my left hip bone, and a small star above my navel.

"We should have enough panels for a few more days but I think we should send a couple of guys to get some more in a few days?" Glenn was rubbing his face tiredly and I nodded in agreement.

"We should try and move as much as we can from that place at a time, just in case someone else finds it." Running the cut part of my shirt across my forehead I let out a sigh, I'd never really enjoyed being in the sun, I had always been easily burnt as a child and unfortunately that carried on into adult life.

"Yea, maybe try and get one of the prison busses up and running, use one of them to bring supplies back?" Rick was stood watching the group killing the walkers, the group had come up with numerous ways to spread the walkers out along the fence, this included handmade machines that rattled, or just plain having people walk the fence line. It worked but the herds were still pretty thick.

When Merle walked closer he stood beside Daryl and I stayed where I was, stood between Tyreese and Glenn, I'd noticed how Daryl behaved when Merle was always around me. I wasn't going to get between two brothers but Daryl didn't seem to care anymore.

As we all went our separate ways I made my way back to the prison, pulling a cigarette from the packet and lighting up I hid behind the large pillar, hoping none of the children would find me. Surprisingly enough considering that the world had ended the parents of said children were actually still really concerned about their children knowing what smoking was and they also got very upset if you swore anywhere near said children. Merle and I had been told off numerous times by Carol and some of the other parental figures in the group for the kids picking up bad words and asking about smoking.

One of the funniest times had been when a huge group of us were stood outside and Merle and I were smoking when Lizzie, a young girl had walked over and asked us about smoking, we'd both tried to hide the offending objects and I'd unfortunately managed to burn myself on the not so nice end and used some…colourful vocabulary. Obviously being aware to my surrounding I'd managed to use child safe words, most of which had brought the group outside to hysterics and ended up being a joke that lasted quite a few days. I suppose saying 'shiny, fudge-in-a teapot' would sort of draw that reaction from people who had a very limited source of entertainment.

Merles had launched into a huge laughing fit, ending up wheezing and falling on the floor, hell even Daryl cracked a smile which had made me notice just how young he looked without the scowl on his face, his expression left him looking much older than he actually was.

The nights however were becoming hard for me, the heavy silence that hung in the prison was driving me insane, and I could rarely ever get more than 5 hours sleep. It drove Tyreese and Sasha insane as sometimes I would get up during the night and pace around my cell. Once they'd gotten up and came to shout at me in the middle of the night and scared each other shitless.

I drove Daryl insane with my pacing as well sometimes, he has been in at least 6 times to stop me pacing so he would get some sleep in the past 2 weeks. He'd been talking to Hershel about drugging me a few days ago so that I'd settle. Hershel had quickly ended the discussion by saying medication was sparse.

Merle was keeping out of trouble, other than the incident with Glenn he was doing well, keeping his mouth shut and even helping Carol with preparing the vegetables, Carol had decided to spare one of her other knifes strap it to his arm and let him chop the vegetables with that, it was a simple job but it gave him something to do, plus I believed he was getting closer to Carol, the two spent much of their time around each other now.

Dropping the finished cigarette on the floor I dragged my boot over it and released the last of the smoke from my lungs.

As I made my way inside and up to my cell Daryl was laid out on his mattress. I'd gotten to know him a bit better but he pushed me away. I'd grown to realise Daryl probably hated me, Merle was always joking around with me and laughing but when it came to Daryl he was always deadly serious, I'd noticed Daryl's glares from time to time and I'd almost grown to ignore them, but now that I was thinking about it I couldn't help but try and get more out of him.

"You hate me don't you? Cause of how close I am with Merle." Leaning my hip against the railing of the stairs I crossed my arms under my chest, watching him.

"Why would I hate ya?"

"I don't know why, I just know you do."

Just as Daryl was about to answer me there was a scream from outside, looking over my shoulder I glanced back at Daryl before we were both heading downstairs, the screaming and shouting outside drew my attention to the group of people trying to hold the fence back up.

The part of the fence that we had been planning to fix tomorrow had given way and the walkers were pushing their way into the dog run, heading to the broken part of the dog run. Without even thinking I made my way over to the dog run and removed one of my hatchets and jammed it into the walkers head. An arrow shot past me and lodged in the next one, Daryl had to wait to reload so while he did I walked forward and hit the next coming walker in the head.

"Get the fence up!" Ripping my hatchet from the walker I threw it into the next one and pulled Daryl's arrow from the downed walker beside me and threw it back to him. Daryl loaded his crossbow and I glanced over to the fence, seeing the fence halfway up. The walkers filling the dog run were being picked off by a few people and I saw Merle stabbing the walkers with his metal arm.

Ducking the flailing arm of the rotting walker in front of me I twisted around and the hatchet hit the side of the corpse's head shattering the skull and digging deep into the brain. Turning back around there was another two coming towards me and I kicked one in the side of the knee as it fell and stomped on the former females head, ducking the other one an arrow hit him in the eye socket. Glancing over my shoulder I saw the fence was pushed back up and Tyreese and Glenn were fixing a metal panel to the bottom. The walkers inside were quickly being finished off and Daryl fired an arrow at the last one on our side.

I could see the shock on everyone's faces, People were gathering around holding any weapon they could find and I let out a sigh. I knew we should have fixed that fence today, I knew it.

Biting down on the inside of my cheek I tasted the metallic liquid and relaxed my jaw slightly, there were bodies lying everywhere. It would be a miracle if no one had been bitten.

It was deadly silent in the small room, the tables were pulled out and people were sat around eating tonight's food. I'd moved myself away and was perched on the top metal frame of the bunk in my room. Carol had brought my room up and I'd only managed to pick at it. My mind racing at a few hundred miles per hour. Having changed from the tank top and usual cargo pants I sat there in a pair of light grey sweatpants and a pale blue oversized shirt.

One of the young girls that had recently arrived was bit; a huge bloody mess on the back of her top had drawn everyone's attention to her and then seeing the almost perfect bite mark on the back of her shoulder. Well that just sealed her fate.

The council had no idea what to do, they couldn't let her turn and they couldn't kill a child. Hershel had gathered the council up and taken them into the administration office to talk.

Everyone else had begun to slowly move away into their own rooms and I could hear mumbled goodnights from different people.

The sound of heavy boots drew my attention and when the sheet moved from the doorway I saw Merle appear in the dull light.

"Ya gonna keep hidin' tomorrow as well?" Leaning in the doorway he crossed his legs at the ankles and stared across at me.

"I'm not hiding Merle. Just thinking." Sitting up straight I felt my body protest, I'd been sat in the same position for nearly 2 hours and my body was stiff.

"Ain't like it was 'fore Lexi, kids gotta grow up faster than they would like ta now."

Climbing down I sat myself down on the lower bunk of the bed and ran my hand over my face. "She's just a little kid Merle. She didn't ask to be dropped into this shit."

"None of us asked ta be dropped in this Lexi." Standing properly he made his way over and carefully sat down on the bed beside me, his left hand on my knee.

The silence that fell between us was natural, we'd end up sitting in silence for hours neither of us talking. It felt natural to be silent around people. We were broken, unfixable but surviving, we'd been that way awhile.

You can tell when someone's broken, they can't function properly, and they push their emotions down and don't let them show. I'd admitted to myself I was broken years ago, year before any of this happened, before I left my family and moved to America.

I could see it in people now, know when they were like me, too broken to fix. I could tell Merle was broken the first day I met him, but he hid it differently to me, he covered it over with cockiness. Rick was broken, he showed it most, and he pulled himself away from everyone else and kept to himself. Daryl was broken, more than anyone I'd met, and he was so far hidden in on himself that I don't think he would ever be able to come back out.

"You shouldn't be so hard on him." Staring at the wall across the cell I took a quick glance at Merle and noticed his normally hard façade was slowly slipping. "You've been hard on him ever since we arrived. You've seen him Merle; these people trust him so much and give him so much admiration. But he craves yours most of anyone's"

The huge sigh he released had be worried, he was either going to open up or he was going to cuss me out.

"He ain' needed me 'fore. Don' need me now." Watching Merle I couldn't quite place the emotion on his face.

"Sometimes we all need someone."


End file.
